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Super Bowl 2013: What's next for 49ers? Decompress, then stop complaining about non-calls

By Tim KawakamiBay Area News Group

Posted:
02/04/2013 10:17:58 AM PST

Updated:
02/04/2013 10:17:58 AM PST

NEW ORLEANS — It serves the 49ers and Jim Harbaugh no material purpose to keep bringing up the non-call in the end zone on their last offensive play and to continue to imply that they were robbed in the Super Bowl.

I get that Harbaugh was mad after the game on the high lob to Michael Crabtree on fourth-and-goal that drew some bumping and grabbing from Baltimore cornerback Jimmy Smith — but no flag.

I get that Harbaugh was venting in the minutes afterwards, and that's where his mind was when he met the media.

I get that he's a rabid competitor and rabid competitors are at their most rabid in the final seconds of the ultimate football game, and it's hard to turn that off when the cameras and microphones are placed in front of you.

I get that a penalty easily could've been called and the 49ers easily could've had first-and-goal at the 1, and if they had punched it from there, then it would've been John Harbaugh screaming and ranting, probably all the way into the post-game media session.

However, other than as an emotional release, the 49ers do not gain by keeping this up, and I wouldn't expect them to do much of it when next we hear from them, whenever that is. (Harbaugh will probably do his season wrap-up later in the week.).

Maybe it makes you feel a little better, but after a day or so to decompress and let the raw feelings ebb a little, the 49ers and Harbaugh have to move on from this — Crabtree could've made a better effort off the line and to the ball, and maybe if he had, the penalty would've come.

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The 49ers lost the game right there ... but they also lost the game with all their first-half mistakes, and with letting Baltimore drive for the field goal that made it a five-point Baltimore lead when the 49ers got the ball back for the last time ... and with the 49ers' third-to-last drive, when they took over at the Baltimore 24 after Ray Rice's fumble and only got a David Akers field goal to make it 28-23.

The 49ers' play-calls the last three plays-three incompletions to Crabtree, zero runs — are certainly questionable, but remember:

They had a Read-Option play called on third down, but they couldn't get the play off in time, so Harbaugh called timeout to kill it, and they'd tipped their hand to the Ravens defense by then, so they changed the call to a Crabtree pass in the flat.

The Ravens were playing Colin Kaepernick to run. He still got loose for 62 yards in the game — which tells you how good a runner he is, obviously — but the Read Option, in particular, was not there.

Baltimore was blitzing like crazy once the 49ers got into the Red Zone, and it's not easy to run delayed handoff/option plays into the teeth of linebackers streaming through the gaps.

Still, ideally, you want the game to be decided by your most dangerous player doing what he does best, and that was Kaepernick running the ball ... or handing it to Frank Gore ... and the 49ers did neither when a title was within reach.

The second-guessing will continue on those plays for the next 10 decades or so.

Despite the haphazard first half and the inability to finish at the end, the 49ers' offense still put up 29 points (not counting the give-away safety at the end) and racked up 468 yards.

It's an explosive offense. I think the 49ers will get bursts of points and yards for as long as Kaepernick is their quarterback, and that probably will be for a very long time.

But they're a little hit-or-miss with him, too. He's a rhythm guy and when things get a little out of syncopation, he gets rushed and things can bog down.

And against a good veteran defense in the Red Zone, there are specific things you can take away (like the Read Option) that might put Kaepernick in a precarious decision-making position.

Of course, that might even out over time — this was Kaepernick's 10th NFL start, so it just shows how good he was in the previous nine that the 49ers put up more than 460 yards of offense and we're talking about the things he can't do.

I'm hearing a ton of talk about the 49ers needing to trade for Darrelle Revis, and much of it makes sense: If healthy he's a great cornerback (but he's not healthy now), the Jets are apparently willing to trade him for the right price, and the 49ers' secondary got hit in the last two playoff games.

But it's hard to see the 49ers meeting a high price for Revis — again, he's hurt, the Jets are going to want a ton for him (no, a straight up deal for Alex Smith or even Smith plus a pick probably won't meet the Jets' price), and the 49ers love to keep their own high draft picks. That's how this team was built.

And high-priced, high-mileage cornerbacks aren't exactly the golden path to titles these days, just ask the Eagles and Nnamdi Asomugha. Or the Jets with Revis.

Another example: Baltimore just won the Super Bowl with Corey Graham and Cary Williams as their starting corners.

Lousy logistics in the post-game media areas last night — the 49ers players had to meet the media about 20 feet from where the Ravens' area started, separated only by curtains.

So while Joe Staley was talking about the hurt of losing a Super Bowl, he had to pause when Ray Lewis came in and started screaming — I mean SCREAMING — on the microphone just about 30 feet away.

I give Staley credit (and NaVorro Bowman, who experienced the same thing) for not jumping up and out of there immediately, once Lewis and Terrell Suggs started screaming to each other on the microphones.

Terrible set-up. The NFL can't set up an area where the two Super Bowl teams can be by themselves when meeting the media?

If the Ravens had been doing that while Harbaugh was talking, somebody might've gotten into a fight right then and there.

Hilariously, somebody asked John Harbaugh at his day-after presser a little while ago if he thought he'd ever sit down with Jim and watch a tape of this game. Of course, John said no, he wouldn't.

I wouldn't get anywhere near Jim with any mention of this Super Bowl, unless I was paid to do it. But of course, I am. I'm flying back Tuesday ... so I'll miss Harbaugh's presser if he does it Tuesday. I'll be there if he does it Wednesday.

John talked about the devastation of losing a Super Bowl. With the Harbaughs, everything's amped up by 10 or so from normal humans, so I can't imagine Jim Harbaugh is anywhere close to emotionally calmed down.

Maybe by April?

Hey wait, news break! This morning Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially volunteered that the NFL will not conclude that the Beyonce halftime show in any way led to the Superdome blackout in the third quarter.

It's not that the NFL knows what caused it. But Goodell has already concluded that it wasn't Beyonce — how could it be, because the NFL loves it's splashy, electric-blasting shows, right?

Always good when you can decide what the truth is before anybody really has done any investigating.